This car shook up the entire blogosphere and became the basis for thousands of articles. The news is that the world's firstBitcoin ATM installed in a cafe in CanadaVancouver, scattered around the world. On the day when this machine for exchanging dollars for bitcoins started working, the article «Bitcoin» became the second most read article on Wikipedia after "Halloween".
People welcomed the appearance of this ATM withwith great enthusiasm. On the first day, they completed over 80 transactions totaling $10,000 CAD (about $9,500 US), and the transaction volume tripled the next day. The ATM was installed by the Canadian company Bitcoiniacs, and it was produced in Nevada, USA, by the Robocoin company. According to company spokesman Mitchell Demetre, most people are now buying Bitcoin, although some have also exchanged Bitcoin for Canadian cash (about $6,000 worth in two days). Demetra says the company plans to install four more Bitcoin ATMs across Canada soon.
Canadian financial authorities have stated that they do notinterested in regulating these ATMs since Canada does not recognize Bitcoin as a currency. The only requirement of the law — ban on the exchange of more than $3,000 per person per day to prevent money laundering. This requirement is implemented using a built-in palm scanner; no other user-identifying information is collected.
But why is the whole world so excited aboutthis car? And why on earth would anyone use it? After all, the whole point of a decentralized P2P currency is to make online money transfers easy, convenient and almost free. Of course, the machine provides almost instantaneous exchange — in less than a minute — but Demetre admits that the 3% ATM fee — This is much more than the commissions of most online exchanges. For example, San Francisco-based Coinbase charges only 1% for bitcoin exchanges, while Canadian exchange Virtex charges between 0.5% and 1.5%.
«Why do you need to go to a regular ATM?get cash there, and then go to another place and stuff it into a Bitcoin ATM? After all, you could make the same exchange without leaving your couch — and pay less fees!» — writes blogger Jeff Roberts at Gigaom.
Of course, this machine provides greatanonymity of conversion from cash to bitcoin — without connecting a bank account or personal identity, as required by Coinbase or the largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox. But all the same, a scan of the palm is required, that is, some biometric information from the transaction remains. Although one of the reasons that the palm was chosen — this is that this biometric is practically not used or collected anywhere else.
«We do not collect personal information» — says Demeter. «Simply a unique scan of the palm is used for comparison with other palms».
Robocoin won the race to develop and launch inmanufacturing Bitcoin ATMs from its competitors, primarily New Hampshire-based Lamassu and California-based BitcoinATM. Bitcoiniacs chose the Robocoin product because «they are the only ones with a functioning product» — says Demeter. «Everyone else is just talking about it, but no one was ready for the installation».
Although the economic senseThis machine is in question and has received widespread coverage due to the rise of Bitcoin in the real world. People don't always understand the intricacies of cryptography, peer-to-peer networks, or Bitcoin mining. An ATM is a different story: you put cash in there, and it immediately prints the address where your bitcoins are (or transfers them to the address you specify). This is much easier to understand.
«Yes, that's exactly what we are trying to do» — says Demeter. «Bring Bitcoin into the real world so people can understand a complex topic».
: Forbes
Related articles
- First BITCOIN ATM in Canada! (lunaticoutpost.com)
- First ever bitcoin ATM to open in Vancouver this week (mining.com)
- Canada opens world's first bitcoin ATM (skynews.com.au)
- Cash-for-bitcoins: World's first palm scan-activated bitcoin ATM to open in Canada (endtimeheadlines.wordpress.com)
- World's First Bitcoin ATM Launched in Canada (business.time.com)
